December 18, 2011

Strasbourg mentioned in new Sherlock Holmes film

Yesterday, I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes film, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. Very early in the film, the French city of Strasbourg was mentioned and I perked up because I once spent an afternoon in the city.

Strasbourg is in the province of Alsace which was a German state until France took it at the end of the Thirty Years War. It took Germany 100 years to recover from the Thirty Years War, but the Germans finally took back Alsace after a war with France that started in 1870, only to lose the state again after World War II.

The Sherlock Holmes Film is set in 1891, which was twenty years after France lost Alsace.

Strasbourg is a beautiful city. It is the closest city to Natzweiler that has an airport, so I went there when I made a trip to the Natzweiler Memorial Site. I took some photos of the city, which you can see below.